Birthday Bride

David had seen the flicker in her eyes, though, and drew his own conclusions. Justin Darke was nice enough, but he was no match for a woman like Claudia Cook, that was for sure. Did he have any idea what Claudia and Lucy had planned for him? Th first thing he would do when he got to Telama’an was drop a warning word in Justin’s ear, although there was something so single-minded about Claudia’s attitude that it would take more than a friendly warning to stop her, he was sure.

He shook his head. ‘Poor Justin!’ he said.

‘I really don’t know who you’re talking about,’ Claudia lied. ‘And in any case, knowing who I was going to meet would spoil it. All I know is that I’m going to be at that party tomorrow night, and after that I’m leaving it to destiny!’

CHAPTER TWO

DAVID her a sardonic look. ‘It looks like you’re going to have a busy day being thirty and meeting your destiny tomorrow,’ he said, and the unconcealed sarcasm in his voice was enough to provoke a dangerous glitter in Claudia’s blue-grey eyes.

‘But don’t you see? The two are linked!’ she gushed, hoping that she sounded as ridiculous as she felt. ‘Thirty is such a crossroads in one’s life, isn’t it?’

‘Is it?’ said David unencouragingly.

‘Yes! It’s a time to reassess what one wants out of life, a time to change direction, a time to let go of one’s youth and face up to the prospect of mortality!’

He turned to her consideringly. ‘Do you know,’ he said, ‘I find it hard to believe that you’re going to be thirty tomorrow?’

Claudia was rather taken aback. She didn’t think she was looking too bad for her age either, but she hadn’t expected a compliment from him. Perhaps she should have tried flirting with him after all? ‘Why, thank you—’

‘Because,’ David interrupted her ruthlessly, ‘I never thought that anyone over the age of five could talk such a load of tosh!’

So much for compliments! Bridling, Claudia glared back at him. ‘Oh, and I suppose you didn’t have a crisis at thirty—or can’t you remember back that far?’ she added nastily.

‘I was far too busy to have any crisis.’

She sniffed. ‘Well, just wait until you’re fifty, that’s all! You’ll have spent your life working without ever really thinking about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, and one day you’ll wake up and realise that you’re fifty and it’s too late to do anything about it. You’ll be in crisis then!’

‘Possibly,’ said David, nettled by her assumption that he was practically past it already, ‘but I don’t propose to worry about it now. As it happens, I haven’t even made it to forty yet! I’ve still got over a month before I have to deal with that crisis!’

‘Oh?’ Claudia’s voice had just the right tone of surprise to be insulting. ‘When’s your birthday?’

He sighed. ‘September the seventeenth.’ He knew what was coming next!

‘You’re a Virgo, then.’ Claudia nodded sagely, although she wasn’t in fact at all sure when Virgos became Capricorns, or was it Librans? ‘That figures.’

David wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of asking what figured. All he knew was that she was by far the silliest and most exasperating woman he had ever met, and he wasn’t going to indulge her any longer, Lucy’s cousin or not.

‘I’m sure,’ he said dismissively. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really do have to do some work.’

‘Oh, of course!’ said Claudia with exaggerated contrition. ‘I’m so sorry for disturbing you. I’ll just read my magazine quietly, and you won’t even know I’m here.’

David didn’t think that was very likely. She was the kind of girl who could sit in a dark room without moving or speaking and still be distracting. Still, if she would just shut up for a while, he might be able to finish that report.

He bent over it and began jotting quick, decisive notes in the margin while Claudia, reduced to pulling out a magazine, tried not to watch him. It was hard not to be impressed by his ability to concentrate as he worked methodically through the report, and in spite of herself her eyes kept sliding sideways to skitter along the forceful line of his jaw.

He wasn’t good-looking, not really. He had a hard mouth and lean, intelligent face, but there was an air of restraint about him, as if he deliberately presented himself in a low key. It was difficult to accuse him of being colourless, though, much as she would have liked to. The strength of his personality was obvious in his calm assurance, in the disconcerting sharpness of his eyes and the intangible quality of authority that clung to him.

He had taken off his jacket, and rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt in a businesslike fashion. Claudia was very conscious of the dark hair on his forearms, and she had to keep hers rigidly together on her lap in case her arm brushed against him. She tried not to look too obviously, but out of the corner of her eye she could see the pulse beating in his neck above his open collar, very slow and very steady.

Stealthily, she felt the pulse in her own throat, which was hammering away at a rate of knots. Perhaps she was just highly strung?

Nobody could accuse David Stirling of being highly strung. Did he ever get excited? Claudia’s eyes strayed back to his mouth. What would it take to arouse a man like that, to break through the cool control and make that pulse beat faster for once?

Aghast at the train of her own thoughts, she jerked her gaze away and hastily turned a page of the magazine. Oh, God, an article about sex! She couldn’t read that with him sitting right beside her. Flicking on, she came to a piece about the pleasures and pressures of different ages. No point in reading about the twenties, she thought glumly. She was leaving those behind her. She’d better read about the thirties instead and find out whether there was any life after thirty, or whether she should just give in and get herself some tweeds and a blue rinse.

Women in their thirties have left all the insecurities of the twenties behind. They are poised, confident, at ease with themselves.

Oh, yeah? thought Claudia cynically.

They have learnt what suits them and what doesn’t, and have the maturity and sophistication to lead life on their own terms. ‘I love women in their thirties,’ one man was quoted as saying. ‘They’re much more interesting than young girls because they’ve got something to say for themselves, they know what they want and they’re confident enough to go out and get it. I think it’s by far the sexiest age. So many women grow into their looks in their thirties. They’ve come to terms with their own bodies and that’s what gives them a glamour and assurance that no twenty-year-old could hope to achieve.’

Claudia gave a disbelieving sniff. As David Stirling would say, what a load of tosh! She had never met a woman who had come to terms with her own body, thirty or not! Still, all that sophistication and glamour didn’t sound too bad, even if there was something daunting about the idea of maturity. When was it going to hit her?

It was all very well to talk about knowing what you wanted, but all Claudia could think that she really wanted right now was to get to Telama’an, to wash her hair and to have a very long, very cold gin and tonic. Hardly very lofty objectives with which to begin the next decade of her life!

Claudia closed the magazine with a sigh. David was still reading his report. There was something wrong with a man who could concentrate like that, she decided, but she didn’t quite dare interrupt him again. That must be because she was still twenty-nine and not yet confident. It would be different tomorrow.

Casting around for another diversion, she looked around the cabin and met the eyes of a Shofrani sitting across the aisle from her. He was a handsome man, dressed stylishly in western clothes, with dark hair and very warm, very dark eyes. He smiled charmingly as their eyes met and Claudia, pleased to find someone who seemed disposed to like her after David’s crushing attitude, smiled back.

‘I am sorry if I was staring,’ he said in excellent English. ‘We do not often see such beautiful passengers on the flight to Telama’an!’

Claudia warmed to his flattery. He introduced himself as Amil and they were soon embarked on a discreet flirtation. He had been doing business for his uncle in the capital, he told her, and was now on his way home.

‘Will you be staying long in Telama’an?’ ‘Just a couple of weeks, then I have to go back to work.’

‘Your job cannot spare you for any longer?’

‘I’m afraid not. I work for a television production company and we’re terribly busy at the moment.’

Beside her, David, who was unable to avoid listening in on their irritatingly complacent conversation, awarded himself points for being right about her job anyway. He had guessed that she worked in the media, but he might have known that it would be in television! He tried to close his ears and focus on his report, but Claudia was rabbiting on about how hectic and important her job was, and her new-found friend was just encouraging her, nodding and smiling and sounding impressed. It was hard to tell which of them was more pleased with themselves, David thought savagely, and gritted his teeth.

Out of the corner of her eye, Claudia caught the tightening of his jaw, and redoubled her efforts to charm Amil. She would show him that some men found her attractive! Turning back to Amil, she gave him a dazzling smile. ‘But that’s enough about my job,’ she said winsomely. ‘I’m sure your life is much more interesting than mine!’

God, she was irritating! David clamped his lips together and scoured out a typing error in the report with unnecessary vigour. He had to endure another quarter of an hour of their stomach-churning, treacly conversation before the steward, moving down the aisle with a trolley, broke them up.

David breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived. Claudia must have had the attention span of a gnat. Couldn’t she just sit still for a minute? She was rummaging around in her bag, sorting through her inexhaustible supply of lipsticks, polishing her mirror, carefully applying colour to her mouth.

When she snapped the mirror shut and dropped it back in the bag with her lipstick, David allowed himself to hope that she would relax, but no! Now she had got out an emery board and was touching up a nail, the next minute it was hand cream, the next refreshing herself with a spray of perfume. The subtle, expensive, undeniably sexy scent that he already associated with her drifted towards him, but he resolutely ignored it and, putting down his pen, pretended to consult the index.

Then—of course!—she had to comb her hair. Tipping her head forward, Claudia ran a comb through the silky mass and then tossed her hair back so that it bounced softly around her face. David tried not to notice how soft it looked, or how the sun through the window glinted on the gleaming strands and turned them into spun gold.

At last it seemed as if she was finished. The comb was put away, the bag pushed under the seat once more. David offered up a silent prayer of thanks and picked up his pen again.

Claudia was bored. David was still resolutely ignoring her and she had run out of ways to provoke him. It was no fun if he wouldn’t respond, anyway. She glanced at her watch. Still an hour and a half to go. Amil was talking to his neighbour, and the magazine just seemed full of articles expressly designed to remind her how old she was getting. With an impatient sigh, she began drumming her fingers on the arm of the seat.

For David, it was the final straw. He threw down his pen. ‘Can’t you sit still for two seconds?’ he demanded between clenched teeth.

‘I am sitting still,’ objected Claudia, offended.